Jocky Wilson darts in to list of greatest Britons

ONE is a style icon famed for ­creating the Mary Quant “bob” haircut in the Swinging Sixties while the other is remembered for his gumsy smile and the pint glass and cigarette he clutched while playing darts.

Hard drinking and chain smoking darts legend Jocky Wilson is one of the Greatest Britons

However, hairdressing guru Vidal Sassoon and darts player Jocky Wilson both now grace the pages of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography after its annual update of men and women who left their mark on British life.

Former Fife miner and British Army soldier Wilson, who died in 2012, was the first Scot to win the darts world championship, in 1982 and again in 1989.

He is one of 40 men and women who were born, lived or worked in Scotland to be included in the latest edition, which is published today. Wilson, famed for his hard drinking and chain smoking both on and off the oche, is joined by a host of household names and less well-known individuals on the list.

Among the notable Scots in the new edition are the Glasgow-born artist and sculptor George Wyllie, who is best known for his giant paper boat and a locomotive made of straw which dangled from a crane on the banks of the River Clyde..

Another is Edinburgh-born Eric Lomax who was captured by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore in 1942 and, despite horrific cruelty inflicted by the enemy at forced labour camps, later forgave his tormentors.

He wrote about his experiences in The Railway Man, which inspired a hit movie starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

Other instantly recognisable names in the latest edition include astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore, who first presented The Sky at Night on BBC Television on April 24, 1957.

He hosted the programme for more than 55 years, missing only one episode through ill-health, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.

Sir Patrick was a commentator for the BBC on many of the Apollo missions, including the first manned moon landing.

He is joined in the book by Jim Marshall, who was encouraged to design a new amplifier by guitarists Pete Townshend and Ritchie Blackmore.

His efforts resulted in the classic ‘Marshall stack’, a black, vinyl-covered monolith of amplifier and speaker characterised by the white script Marshall logo. Animator Gerry Anderson, the man behind puppet adventure series Stingray, Captain Scarlet, and Thunderbirds, is also included, along with historian and political commentator Eric Hobsbawm.

Hobsbawm is credited with being the first to recognise the “Thatcher effect”, which made Conservative policies appeal to sections of the British working class for the first time.